Boeing planes that made, missed top 100 list

AUBREY COHE, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By AUBREY COHEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 7:05 pm, Thursday, July 19, 2012

Boeing's compsite wide-body 787 Dreamliner ranked 94th on Flying's list. Here, a Qatar Airways 787 takes part in a flying display at the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, southern England, on July 10, 2012.

Photo: ADRIAN DENNIS, AFP/Getty Images

Boeing's compsite wide-body 787 Dreamliner ranked 94th on Flying's...

Liftoff of a prototype Boeing 747, No. 55 on the list, on its maiden flight at Everett's Paine Field in 1969. Photographer Phil Webber said that P-I editors at the time believed the plane was too big to fly, and insisted that a photographer be on hand for each of the first few test flights. (P-I photo by Phil H. Webber)

Photo: Museum Of History And Industry

Liftoff of a prototype Boeing 747, No. 55 on the list, on its...

The controversial Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey was 53rd on Flying's list.

Photo: CARL COURT, AFP/Getty Images

The controversial Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey was 53rd on Flying's list.

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the staple U.S. bomber of World War II, was 45th on Flying's list.

Photo: Museum Of History And Industry

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the staple U.S. bomber of World...

The Boeing Model 314 "Clipper" was 40th on Flying's list. This is a shot of a Pan Am Clipper, circa 1939.

Photo: Library Of Congress

The Boeing Model 314 "Clipper" was 40th on Flying's list. This is a...

Boeing's B-52 Stratofortress bomber was 34th on Flying's list. Here, the B-52 prototype takes off on its first flight, on April 15, 1952 at Boeing Field in Seattle. B-52s are still in service.

The Boeing 737, the world's most popular commercial airliner, ranked eighth on Flying's list.

Photo: Central Press, Getty Images

The Boeing 737, the world's most popular commercial airliner,...

You could make arguments for several other Boeing aircraft. But it's particularly hard to understand how the 707 didn't make Flying's list. After all, it ushered in the era of jet air travel. Here's Boeing's rollout of the Dash 80 707 prototype on May 14, 1954.

The list includes small propeller airplanes, business jets, commercial airliners, fighters, bombers, spy planes, helicopters, the Hindenburg and the space shuttle. How you rank such diverse aircraft is hard to imagine.

Boeing had quite a few entries in the list, but also at least one glaring absence. Click through the gallery above to see how Boeing fared, and then head over to Flying to see the full list.